Deal With It
by newromaantic
Summary: When Julie Roman moved from her clourful city to a small, dull British village she thought life could not get any worse. Now when she finds out she has possibly crazy neighbours (who might just be in a broom worshipping cult) will they make her new life worse or better?
1. Chapter 1

**AN : Hey guys, this is the first fanfiction I ever post, so I really hope you like it, let me know what you think. I got the idea for this from FisheeFabulous's amazing story My Possibly Crazy Neighbours (check it out, it's really good) so credit for that goes to her. Thanks, and enjoy.**

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1

I do not know what my mother was thinking when she decided we move back to her hometown. It had come completely out of the blue and at the worst moment. High school in Devenmont was everything a student could ever hope for. And she was taking it away from me.

Now, I didn't want to sound like one of those whiny, moody teenagers who complained about how their parents were ruining their whole lives by moving away. But missing my chance to perform at Once was something I could never forgive. Once in A Life was my dream, the only likeable thing out of all those years of oral expression classes. It had been my dream since I was in diapers. And, as mentioned in the title, happened only once in your life.

Why did I have to have a foreign mother? I guess it's the Devenmont curse.

Now I was moving in to a new house in a new town in a new country. Our house was beautiful, it was, but it wasn't home.

Obviously, I had been the first one in our six-member family to finish unpacking and settling in. I didn't like leaving things unfinished. I never had. Now as I lounged in my new room listening to Latin American rock just to make me feel a little more at home, I realised two things: (1) I hadn't eaten in 18 hours (fact confirmed by my growling gut), and (2) I couldn't shake the feeling that something remarkable was about to happen.

Luckily my first dilemma could be solved relatively easily. I went down to the kitchen, trying to be as sneaky as possible so my parents wouldn't notice me and try to make me help with the house.

Our cupboard was completely empty (I don't know what I had been expecting really). But in the kitchen counter a few things my mum had managed to bring all the way from the Mexico City airport to the Heathrow airport were sitting there, just calling for me.

So I grabbed a package of Habanera cookies (which I usually hate) and a container filled with tuna no one had wanted to eat during the trip and headed out to the backyard.

Don't ask why but I went outside to eat. Okay, there were several reasons I could think of to go outside: (1) I didn't want to degrade my new bed with food so soon. (2) I wanted to be left alone. (3) I wanted to see if being outside had the same feel in this house as it did in the past one.

After quickly scanning the backyard I settled for a nice looking big old tree and sat down to have my lunch/dinner.

After a few minutes of being out there I came to a conclusion. Although it was nice out there, I didn't feel exactly, well, safe. It felt strange, and from where I come from strange means creepy and creepy means danger. Nevertheless I stayed there, eating my lunch/dinner. Who knows, maybe one day this will be my new normal. Sitting out in the backyard eating snacks and listening to the world.

A loud bang! shot me out right of my thoughts. I jumped about a foot in the air.

What was that?

Could it have been a gunshot?

It sounded like gunshot.

Well considering that I've never actually heard an actual gun being fired in my life.

Well, being more critical, it could have easily been a car backfiring or something. Yes, it must've been that.

Then suddenly there came voices. Unknown voices. It must've been the neighbours I hadn't met yet. My mum had said they were the Potters.


	2. Chapter 2

2

I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I seriously wasn't the kind of person to listen in on my neighbours' conversations and then go gossip to all the middle aged ladies with nothing better to do. But what I heard that day was what led me to start my belief that my neighbours were crazy. I didn't know if it was a British thing no one had told me about, but it was definitely weird.

It's not my fault that I had just discovered a new hideout for when I didn't want my mum to pester me with even more chores I should be doing, or when my brothers would just not leave me alone. I had been surprised at how easy it had been to find my nice little spot in the new house, but I wasn't gonna complain.

So I laid there in the little nook between the wall of the house and our almost freshly painted fence, hidden by the bushes at both my sides, at first it had seemed strange that they had left this exact spot bushless, but hey fine by me.

My back had started to get a little sore and my head a little dizzy from the lack of a pillow, and I knew my mother would freak out when she realised I was nowhere to be found, so I started contemplating going back inside the house. And just as I gathered the willpower to finally lift my lazy butt off the ground, I heard them.

Now, the right thing to do would have probably been to continue on my merry way and leave my new neighbours to their stuff, but God knows my Tía Susana, God rest her soul, would never forgive me. Also I had lifted my head too quickly and had gotten a head rush therefore I decided to lay back down for a bit.

Now, I gathered all the details of what I heard and wrote them down in a notebook, which I luckily had with me, since I had seemed to have thought this was a nice spot for some writing (which I never actually got around to). The part that had called my attention the most and thereby led to start my belief that the Potters were mental read as following:

 _Mrs. Potter [I guessed, it sounded like a grown woman]: Al, honey, did you manage to get your school robes?_

 _[robeS, how many robes does a person need, and is it a normal thing for schools to have their own robes?]_

 _Al [presumably]: No, I got everything else though_

 _Mrs Potter: Well done son, the only thing you actually need to be there in person to buy, was the only thing you didn't buy [I liked her tehee]_

 _Al: it's not my fault we got mugged again!_

 _Mr Potter [it sounded like an adult]: Don't worry, Al, you can go get your robes tomorrow, I'll get your Aunt Audrey to go with you_

 _Mrs Potter: James, go put your new broom in the cupboard, and be careful with it! If you break this one we're not buying you another one!_

 _[okay, what?]_

 _James [presumably]: Don't worry, mum, this broom is far nicer than the last one, I'd never break it_

 _[were they in some kind of broom worshipping cult?]_

Still nothing concrete to go on, can only conclude that they are a really weird family. With a broom fetish.

* * *

A few days later I decided to go better prepared to spy on the Potters. I had equipped myself with a pair of good binoculars I had borrowed from my brother, my notepad, a pen, and a sandwich.

I guess some people would say that no matter how insane your neighbours are, it's wrong to spy on them. I was not one of those people. If my neighbours were actually insane I wanted to know exactly how. Also I had sadly inherited all my Tías and had a tendency to never stay away from gossip. It's a hard life, but someone's gotta do it. Besides I find strange people extremely interesting.

I observed the Potter house for what felt like hours with no suspicious activity whatsoever, I started to think maybe today nothing weird was going to happen. Maybe even weirdos get tired of being weird once in a while.

Just as I was about to give up on my spying for the day a bunch of teens suddenly burst out the Potters' backyard door. Okay, I had not realised when or how so many people had arrived to the house without me noticing.

I'd estimate there were about ten people, most looked around my age, were now running around the Potters' back yard.

I quickly put my binoculars to use and tried to discreetly look around the tree while balancing on a tree branch. Which, let me tell you, was not an easy task.

There were various things that I noticed with my binoculars. (1) The magazine one of the girls was reading was called Witch Weekly, weird, definitely weird, I'd never heard of that magazine before. But it sounded really cool, I'd definitely look it up. (2) A red headed girl who had sat down next to weird magazine girl opened a book; it was called Hogwarts, A History. Okay I have absolutely no idea what the word Hogwarts meant, but I'm guessing it has a history.

I got a little bored after making the exciting discovery of the Potters' friends reading habits, until Mr Potter yelled at the kids, and I quote, 'Hey guys, grab your brooms, your Uncle Ron just found a place to play Kui-ditch (?) a few towns over, so get your cloaks, we'll Flu (?) there!'

I shit you not.

That's what he said.

Although that seemed a perfectly normal thing to say to the kids as they all immediately cheered and ran inside.

Okay now I was convinced, my neighbours were definitely crazy.

* * *

I decided that was enough neighbour weirdness for a day and went back inside the house. I did not find a pretty sight. I found my mum in the kitchen, cooking some gooey paste inside a casserole which she seemed to be putting a lot effort in stirring.

I sat down on the kitchen counter.

"Mum what are you doing?"

"I'm cooking dinner, isn't it obvious?"

"But it's only 6pm, and thanks but I'd rather not eat anything cooked by you," I loved my mother, but if you ever tried her cooking you'd understand what I meant.

"Honey, we talked about this, we need to get used to this country's eating habits," she insisted for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"No, mum, this country should get used to my eating habits."

I refused to let this country change me in any way.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN : There's a tiny bit of Spanish spoken in this chapter, I put the translation in** _ **italics**_ **right after the dialogue, if there's any confusion please tell me. Is it understandable that way? Thanks for reading, I hope you like it.**

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Chapter 3

Saturday was such a slow burn, I just wanted to melt into the carpet.

My mother and I were alone at home, I had no idea where the hell my brothers and my dad were, and I did not have the energy to go downstairs and ask.

Too much free time at once made me lazy, and it's not as if I could just hit up any of my friends to just hang out or something. Oh how I wish I was brave enough to go out and make friends here, but sitting around at home was just so much easier.

But seriously if I didn't come out of this vegetative state I had been in all day and at least change my clothes or wash my face I was going to start feeling awful.

"Julie! Get down here I need you to run an errand for me!"

Okay that was definitely not the way I wanted to revive.

"Coming!" I yelled back.

I had no idea what kind of errand that woman wanted me to run but knowing her she'd have me run to the store to get something, so I decided to stick with sports clothes. You can't go wrong with workout clothes, that's my motto.

So after picking out my cute yoga pants and top from Forever 21, selecting my nice kicks and pulling my hair into a high pony, and stopping to fill in my brows a bit just to look a little less dead, I headed downstairs.

"I need you to take this over to the Potters," my mother said as soon as she saw me emerge from the stairs.

"Mum, you do remember that they're the ones supposed to bring us a welcome to the neighbourhood present, not us" I said sceptically.

My mum rolled her eyes, "yes, I know. It's not a welcome present, it's an apology for any trouble you kids may cause here."

I scoffed, "seriously?"

"I have a reputation in this town honey."

I scowled harder. I should explain; you see, my mother, Olivia Carolina Cabello Suárez was born in the city of Habana, Cuba but sadly her parents passed away just a few months after she was born. After that she was sent to the very small town we just moved to in the UK to live with a couple who had been good friends of my mum's parents but could never had children. So my mother spent her early days here, and grew up as an Englishwoman before going back to Habana when she was 19 so she could reconnect with her roots. That's where she met my dad, and they fell in love and settled down in my father's hometown in Mexico. And that's why we were her now, after over twenty years of living on my father's hometown she wanted her chance now.

I took a deep breath, oh the times I did not understand my birth-giver.

"I really don't see the point of speaking English inside the house, ma," I tried to change the subject.

"We live here now, honey, we speak English now."

How could she just forget about our whole lives so easily; but most importantly, why?

Now there's some food for thought.

Just as I was about to give up on my mum and head out to our crazy neighbours' house the doorbell rang.

My mum went straight to answer, not even bothering to check who it was through the window like we used to back home. I felt a pang of nostalgia. So I ran in front of her and beat her to the door just to be annoying.

Standing on our front porch was a tall redheaded woman, who seemed built enough to be a professional athlete, holding a pie in her arms (that in all honesty looked sooooo delicious).

"Hello, I'm Ginny Potter, I'm your next door neighbour," she said.

Shit. It's crazy Mrs Potter. What do I even say to her, 'hey does your family have a weird broom fetish?', 'I've been spying on your family since we moved here but thanks for the pie!' Okay, knowing myself, it was highly probable that some of that would burst out of my mouth the second I opened it. I suddenly wanted to throw up. Shit shit shit shit shit.

My mum, in all of her 'we just moved!' cheer came quickly to my rescue, "Oh hi! I'm Olivia Roman," she stretched out her hand. Can you believe her? Her freaking hand. Were all of those years of kissing on the cheek acquaintANCES THAT EVEN MY MUM BARELY KNEW FOR NOTHING?! I needed my breathing exercises.

Mrs Potter shook my mother's hand.

My mum simply hadn't been herself since we moved. "No, mum, you're Olivia Cabello," I would so get my ass whooped for this later.

My mother's welcoming smile faded just a little, "This is my daughter, Julie," she said, dismissing my previous comment. I was by now pretty sure my mum would never call me by my actual name ever again, which I couldn't decide if it was good or bad.

Mrs Potter's eyes glazed just for moment but she did not comment.

"It's nice to meet you, Julie." Nice move, Mrs Potter, you might have just saved my ass.

"Likewise, Mrs Potter," I said politely (I think the _thanks dude_ was implied). _Why do you buy your teenage son brooms?_

"Oh please, just call me Ginny," she said modestly, I half expected her to flick her hair behind her ear in model like fashion. "Anyway, I just came over to give you this pie as a welcome to the neighbourhood present and to invite your family to dinner on Thursday when my husband gets back from a work trip."

I blinked at her, dinner at the Potter household? I couldn't tell if I should be afraid or excited for the new information I may be getting.

My mum was over the moon. "Well of course, we'd love to! Thank you so much for the pie!" she said as she took the dish from Mrs Potter's hands. "I was actually just about to send Julie out to your house to give you a little something."

My mum took the container with Carlota from my hands while I just stared blankly at the exchange between the two women, "this is a dish from my kids' hometown, it's kind of like a pie," my mum said.

"It's not a pie," I corrected. "It's hard to explain, but it's really good. Not a pie at all though," I explained.

Mrs Potter nodded as she took the container from my mum.

Mum ignored me again.

"Wow, thanks a lot guys, I'm sure my kids will appreciate it. Dinner's on Thursday at 6, if you guys are available." Mrs Potter said.

"Yes, of course!" my mum said not even giving it a second thought. I'm pretty sure if any of us happened to be unavailable she'd make us available.

"Well it was nice meeting you both, thanks for the not-pie," she said with a wink. "I'll be heading back now."

I smiled. "Bye." She seemed nice.

My mum watched as Mrs Potter retreated back to her own household. Then turned to me and said, "Well that went well. See honey? You'll be making friends in no time."

I tried not to let my scowl show. Now I had to rely on my mother to set me up on play dates. Great.

I headed back upstairs not without yelling out, "and I put on my cute yoga pants for nothing!"

* * *

When I woke up on Sunday I realised three things; (1) There wasn't a pillow under my head. (2) There were two lumps on my bed next to me that had not there when I went to sleep. (3) I could not let the dinner on Thursday happen.

"Get offff," I drawled while I kicked my brothers blindly.

"Julieeeeee," was my little brother's only reply as hugged me like a teddy bear. I relaxed, damn my soft spot for that little.

Everything was fine for a few minutes before my big bro let out a huge snore and started drooling onto my pillow.

That woke me up, "okay, GET OUT NOW!" I yelled as I reached over our little brother's head and pushed him.

He woke up with a start and realised what was going on. And he. Fucking. Giggled.

I started screaming bloody murder. "GET OUT OF MY ROOM BOTH OF YOU. NOW." I said as I shook, trying to pry them off my bed.

I noticed my little brother's evilness then as he laughed at my despair.

"MUUUUUUUUMMMMMM!"

That got them off.

They were off my bed and about to flee the scene when my mother sauntered in. "Daniel! Gabriel! What are you boys doing in here screaming?!"

Dany immediately put on his 'I'm just a little innocent 10-year-old' facade and let his older brother take full responsibility.

"¡Ella es la que estaba gritando nosotros no!" _'She was the one screaming, not us!'_ Gabriel quickly argued. And in that moment I almost forgot what had just happened and in my head applauded my brother for being just as stubborn if not more in my mother's insistence of using only English now. But then I remember how my beautiful new pillow cover would be now forever tainted by his disgusting saliva. And it passed.

Mum's face reminded impassive, "and you were the ones in here having no business, get out."

I smirked as they made their way out of my room. I win this time bitches.

"And you little lady stop screaming bloody murder this early in the morning," she scolded me as she left with a sigh.

I laid back down on my bed with a thud.

I could not let my brothers meet the Potters.

* * *

"Yes, but are they cute?"

This was my best friend Pau's only response to my long rant on the phone about my crazy neighbours.

"Okay, I literally just told you a full detailed explanation about why my neighbours are crazy and why we shouldn't have dinner with them and that is your only response?" I scolded her as I paced around on the furry cream carpet in my room.

"Oh I am truly sorry, Julieta. Let me rephrase that. I don't care how crazy they are, if you meet a cute British guy you gotta bring him to me immediately," she said. Sometimes I wondered how I was friends with her.

"Well I haven't had the chance to look at them very carefully to be honest, I wouldn't know what to say," I said truthfully. I sure hoped they were cute though.

"Ugh," I could feel her eye roll through the phone. "Me cagas." ' _You suck.'_

"Yeah, but remember how I told you about that magazine the girl at the Potters' was reading, Witch Weekly?" I said as I sat down on the edge of my bed holding the phone between my shoulder and my cheek.

"Yeah," she sounded bored now.

"Well I looked it up and it doesn't exist," I waited a few seconds to see if I would finally get my detective moment and she would gasp and say 'oh my god, how is that possible', it didn't come. "I mean it could be some seriously small magazine from this town or something, but I still think it's really odd."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"But you gotta admit, Witch Weekly is a pretty dope name, I'd definitely read that." I said.

"Yes, it's a really cool name. But in all honesty, I don't think there's such a deep meaning behind the not finding the magazine online. I'm sure it has a very um… what's the word?" she wondered out loud.

"Plausible," I provided.

"Plausible explanation," she finished her sentence.

"And that's whY YOU GOTTA THINK BIG!" I exclaimed.

Pau laughed lightly. "And that's why you of all people should be excited about moving to England."

"What? Why?"

She made an exasperated noise at the back of her throat. "Because you know more English than anyone I know, and you love it more than anyone."

Well this had turned in a whole new direction. She wasn't wrong though, somewhere in the very very back of my mind I was excited about moving to this country, I could never admit it to myself though. Maybe the awkwardness I had developed in my mother tongue wouldn't be so bad in this one.

"You know I only accept the title of best in the student body." I tried to sound cheery, I knew Pau was already on the verge of tears, la _chillona._

Pau only let out a gasp between a chuckle and a cry that I could only interpret meant that if she said another word she would burst into tears. _But what about Once?_ I wanted to say, but I tried not to mention the subject anymore.

We hung up soon after that, and I went to sleep with my eyes brimmed with tears and a lot on my mind.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I was really nervous about this chapter but here it is, I hope you all like it. There is a certain part where some characters speak in italics, this means they're speaking in Spanish, just clearing that up. And to the person who left a review, thank you so much, you really inspired me to finish this.**

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Chapter 4

Choosing an old tree to be my hiding spot for my spying on the neighbours probably wasn't my best idea ever. My leg was getting a serious cramp and my position had to be the most uncomfortable position ever invented for a human to be in. Oh the things I do for the sake of spying.

There was no way on earth I could've written down all the info I gathered while up in the tree so my notebook was safely tucked in my pocket for the timebeing.

I tried to remember everything I saw so I could write it down later but there wasn't really anything to remember today. It had been a quiet day. Just the Potter children chilling on their backyard, no suspicious activity. Except maybe how they all had managed to stay away from their phones the whole time I'd been watching. But let's face it, there's got to be at least a few teenagers in the world who weren't as dependant of their phones as I was.

Although I am (just a little bit) ashamed to admit I had actually checked out the Potter boys today after Pau's comment yesterday (and her three reminders afterwards) I must say I didn't regret it. Maybe it just seemed that way from the distance but they both looked hella cute, both with floppy brown hair and a lean built. I still had to find out how old they were though.

Watching the Potters lazing on a Sunday afternoon, as cute as they were, was getting boring. I even started getting a little sleepy, which let me tell you, is not such a good idea while you're balancing on a tree branch. My mind jerked awake all of a sudden when I felt my numb leg starting to slip. Oh no shit. Too late. My leg had slipped.

My fall was a short but painful one, I landed on the grass with a muffled thud, and with a messed up stomach. I think more from the scare than from the actual fall.

I laid down on the grown a few moments feeling the slight dampness of the grass soak onto my butt and my shirt but still not quite willing to get up when I heard noises coming from the other side of my fence.

"Oh Merlin! Are you okay?!" Merlin?

Oh shit. My neighbours had seen me fall from that tree, they'd know I was spying on them. Oh shit, this was bound not to end well.

I did not move an inch. I laid on my back showing no life signals, hoping maybe that way they'd leave, but after a few straining noises a face came into view.

Dear Jesus fucking Christ. Okay maybe I had actually died and gone to heaven (or maybe hell) because that man was godly. His perfect chiselled face in a slightly tanned tone and light brown eyes matched perfectly across the cloudy sky in my line of vision. That jawline would probably haunt my dreams for months. I could feel the lump forming in my throat. I held my breath. God I hope I'm not embarrassing myself too much. I've always liked to believe I'm not a blusher, but god if my face felt this hot there was no way it wasn't showing.

"Are you alright? We saw you fall out of that tree?" He said with a slight frown on his brow.

That's when I noticed the boy beside him, very similar to him but with more of a baby face and piercing green eyes, not unlike mine, but handsome as well.

I took a deep breath. Sweet Baby Jesus help me.

"I'm just fine," my voice sounded a little rough. "I was just checking the tree... for stuff." I said as I sat up and dusted off my arms.

Great Julie, they're not gonna suspect anything by that.

The pretty boy smirked and gave me a look, frown gone "Sure," he drawled out.

Oh my god his voice was so hot. Pull yourself together Julie. You are a smart, sensual latin woman who doesn't need no man.

I cleared my throat. "Yes."

I then moved to go get up and pretty boy quickly offered me a hand and so did his brother. I grabbed their hands on each of my own and lifted myself of the ground. "Thanks," I said a little out of breath.

"No problem," pretty boy said. "I'm James, by the way, James Potter."

I nodded and looked at James's brother expectantly.

"Al Potter," he said with a slight nod of his head.

"I'm Julie, Julie Roman," I said, "your new neighbour." Way to state the obvious Jules.

James smirked again, I felt week on the knees a little. "Yeah, we noticed. Where are you guys from?"

Now it was my turn to smirk, "that's for me to know, and for you to find out." Yes! Finally I said something that sounded cool.

"Oh come on, it's an easy question"

I bit my lip and shook my head at him, "you won't guess."

That seemed to catch his attention.

Al gave me a look, "you should not have said that."

I looked at him questioningly and opened my mouth.

The look on James's face was a little bit unnerving.

"I!" He suddenly bellowed. I jumped a little.

"James likes to consider himself", Al started.

"SHALL GUESS," James cut his brother off.

"The King of guessing," Al finished off.

"THE ANSWER." James yelled.

King of guessing, that's a weird thing to consider oneself.

I raised my brow at him.

"What do you wanna bet?" James said to me with his arms crossed.

I shot him a look. "Are you sure you wanna do this?" I said.

"Yes," he stated confidently.

"Okay," I said. "If you don't guess correctly, you have to unpack and sort out all my makeup exactly how I want it AND let me do your make up."

James's eyes widened for a second but he rapidly recovered. "Alright, and when I guess correctly, you have to go out with me," there was that smirk again. I wanted to wipe it off his face so much.

I gave him a look, "Seriously? That's what you're picking?"

"Nope, just wanted to see your reaction." Asshole. "When I win, you have to clean my room for me once a week for the rest of the holidays."

Oh my god. Luckily for me, sorting out stuff was one of my favourite things to do. I am admittedly a bit of a neat freak. The makeup thing was just because there was way too much of it, he didn't really know what he was in for. Plus, men are so boring, he probably doesn't have anything though to accommodate.

"Deal." I said, not showing my inner compliance. "But rules, you can't ask any member of my family, you can't ask for help to any members of your family or anyone for that matter, and you can't look me up on social media. You have until Thursday, when you will inevitably find out the answer," if I couldn't help it.

He pondered this for a short minute before nodding slowly. We shook on it.

"Now get out before I call the cops on you for invading my backyard." I said with a smile.

"You fell out of a tree," James said.

"So?"

"You weren't getting up."

"I know."

He and his brother chuckled and then leapt over the fence to their house.

I went back into my home in a sedated state. Did I really just do that?

* * *

"JULIETA OLIVIA GET YOUR LAZY BUTT OUT OF BED RIGHT NOW" my mum shrieked from the bottom of the stairs. How can such a potent voice come out of such a tiny woman?

She was right though, I should probably get out of bed already. But it was soooo comfy and I hadn't really gotten much sleep last night. I thought back to the happenings of the previous night. It had been so late, I'm not even sure it wasn't all just a dream.

A quick check through my phone call register showed me it had happened. I sighed. Pau was gonna be the death of me.

I should probably explain what happened last night, or early this morning, whatever.

It was around three in the morning when the incessant ringing of my phone woke me up, I had forgotten to set it to Do Not Disturb when I went to sleep.

I groggily opened my eyes and felt for my phone on the nightstand, I had to put the screen directly in front of my face and squinted through the darkness to be able to read the caller ID. Pau.

I didn't want to answer, I really didn't. My body and mind were too tired. And I knew Pau would understand if I didn't pick up. But her grinning little face seemed to glare at me from the screen and I felt my heart clench a little. I swiped the screen to pick up her call.

At first there came no sound from the other end. Oh my god if she butt dialled me or something I swear to god.

Then came a strangled sob from the other end. I felt my eyes sting a little.

" _I didn't think you'd pick up_ "

"Well I did," I said curtly.

" _Are you not going to talk to me in Spanish anymore or what?_ "

I snorted, _"Sure"_

Silence fell for a few more seconds and before I could fall asleep again I said, " _Why are you calling me? Are you alright?"_

A few more sobs came from her end, and it broke my heart to listen to her cries, as used as I had become accustomed to it in the past month.

"I'm sorry, I know it's like three a.m. there I just couldn't help myself."

"It's okay," I said gently, hoping I would calm her down with just my voice. But God, would I have given anything to just hug her long and tight until she stopped crying.

" _It's just that, you remember today was my uncle's thing in the Hacienda?_ "

"Yes, of course." She hadn't stopped talking about it all week.

" _Well a little while ago my little cousins arrived_ " she said just barely holding on to a thread of voice. Oh no I could see where this was going. I put my hand against my temple and let her speak. " _And as soon as they arrived, Diego and Elisa and Pablo and Feli all started asking about you, you should've seen them, jumping up and down asking me if Julie was here if Julie was going to come, where was Julie_ " her voice broke. And I could feel my heart shatter a bit too.

"I thought they'd told them, I hoped someone had told them, because I certainly didn't have the strength to do it myself," she continued. " _You should've seen it. Everybody sobered up and looked at me as if I was gonna irreparably break in a thousand pieces right there, and the worst thing was that I might've. My aunts and uncles quickly grabbed their children and told them in a sweet voice 'Julie's just moved to a city far away, and she's not coming back for a while' their little faces crumbled and they started asking why I hadn't kept you here_."

"Pau," I wanted to stop her before she continued. I could feel her tears through the phone.

She ignored me, "I just couldn't do it, I couldn't. I had to get out of there. And now I'm locked in the bathroom on the first floor, which was the nearest room I could reach."

I smirked a little, "your sister's room is literally right across that bathroom. Plus that's the bathroom where we saw that Lady's ghost that one time when we were thirteen."

"I miss you so much," she said in a breath. "I forgot, and you were the one who saw it, not me," she defended as if she hadn't noticed what she'd said before. "And anyway I should probably let you sleep, it's really late over there."

I smiled into the phone. "Okay, but before we hang up, I just need you to know that I love you and I miss you more than words. Tell your cousins I'll see them soon and I miss them. You are my best friend, and nothing can ever change that, I promise we'll see each other soon. And I don't deserve a single one of your tears so don't you dare shed another one for me. I am seriously the luckiest person on earth to have you in my life. Remember that I love you every day, and I would give anything to be with you right now."

We hung up soon after that.

And I drifted off easily to sleep.

So now, at 12:30pm after an emotionally exhausting night I was not ready to get out of bed.

* * *

"JULIETA COME DOWN HERE!"

And that my friends, is how my heart nearly burst out of my chest. I dropped my phone on my face, hard. I was too tired to yell back at my brother so for once, I just complied.

"What do you want?" I said as I plopped down on the couch in the living room.

"Have you talked to the Potter boy from next door?" Gabriel asked. He was standing by the window looking out at the front lawn with a calculating look on his face. This could not be good.

I sat up on the couch, my suspicion awakening. "Why do you ask?"

"He's been out on his front lawn watering his plants for a real long time and he keeps glancing over to our house every second. Just wondering what he wants."

I thought back to the events of the previous day and I couldn't help but hope it was James out there.

I blew a raspberry and walked over to my brother. Too lazy to say anything I just hugged him around the middle for a few seconds before heading out the front door. I stood on the middle of our front lawn looking directly at him. It was James. He stopped his gardening for a moment to stare back at me. And though we were feet apart his brown eyed look made my stomach melt a little.

"Italian."

I smirked. "That's half assed, even for you"

"I know."


End file.
